Hyderabad cantonment areas sitting on garbage piles as Telangana fails to clear dues
Hyderabad: The health and sanitation in cantonment areas are jeopardised since the Telangana government has not released outstanding dues, causing the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) to be unable to deploy adequate workers and machinery for sanitation work.
According to SCB sources, the state government has released only Rs 46 crore of the entire Rs 100 crore outstanding to the board. "We need to receive Rs 45 crore from the state government. The fund crunch resulted in a shortage of manpower to execute the sanitation works. Cleaning is supposed to be done every alternate day and at least once every three days, but I have received complaints where there has been no cleaning for 15 straight days,” a source said.
While the Telangana government has yet to settle outstanding dues, SCB officials appear to have contradictory perspectives on a shortage of funds impeding sanitation works.
Afzal Mohiuddin, SCB health superintendent, stated that complete sanitation cannot be maintained at any place with meagre resources. "There are various teams deployed to pick up waste, clean drainages, and implement anti-larval measures on a daily basis," he claimed.
SCB CEO Madhukar Naik, on the other hand, maintained that a paucity of funds cannot be linked to a lack of manpower while stating that there is adequate staff. People who do not want to pay the basic charges for the door-to-door garbage collection service prefer to trash the cantonment areas by throwing garbage wherever they wish, he claimed.
"Army areas are often clean. Only the public, commercial, and market areas demand more attention. We are not perfect in terms of delivering all facilities, but we are better than the GHMC,” he argued.
While this is so, M. Devender, SCB's superintendent of health and sanitation, said that 99 percent of the people in cantonment areas utilise the door-to-door garbage collection services, while also claiming that a good drainage system was in place.
Former SCB vice president J. Maheshwar Reddy, on the other hand, stated that the cantonment has development plans but cannot put them into action due to a lack of funds. " The sewage collection can be improved. Cleaning vehicles and equipment can also be improved. Garbage is being dumped everywhere and the problem is often overlooked. There is an urgent need to enforce challans on those who litter garbage," he remarked.
What SCB residents say
Except for the main roads, the colonies, particularly those close to the slum areas, have devolved into open defecation and urination areas. It's annoying and depressing to watch children as young as 6-10 years old defecate on the streets, directly outside their homes (slums). Garbage is also built up in these slum neighbourhoods and is not picked up for days, posing a major health risk to those who live on the other side of the slum. Public toilets are desperately needed.
– Naimesh Mehta, a resident of Mudfort.
Garbage mounds grow in colonies despite repeated complaints to the SCB since they are not picked up on a regular basis. Pigs are frequently seen foraging through trash heaps. The garbage has practically taken up half of the road at the road's entrance.
Hamza Tamba, a resident of Bowenpally
